Former Catalan president takes centre stage in Carnival parades

The Spanish government rejects the idea of a “symbolic” president of Catalunya

The Spanish government has responded to the continuing speculation over the identity of the next president of the regional government of Catalunya by making it clear that they will not tolerate any “symbolic” re-investiture of the former president Carles Puigdemont, who remains in “exile” in Brussels while avoiding imprisonment during the investigations into alleged sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds.

Speaking on Monday morning, government spokesman Íñigo Méndez de Vigo underlined that in no way will the national executive respect any appointment of this kind, reiterating that such a thing as a “symbolic president” simply doesn’t exist: he even suggested that this proposal may be nothing more than a ploy to ensure that Sr Puigdemont is paid some kind of salary while in Brussels!

Much of this view has been echoed by the vice-president of the national government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who stated again over the weekend that Sr Puigdemont will not be the next Catalan president, also expressing the opinion that if he were interested in serving Catalunya he would abandon his ambition to return to office and allow a government to be formed which favours peaceful co-existence and the revival of the regional economy – this came after the business community of Barcelona issued another call for political stability to be restored as soon as possible.

Curiously, Elsa Artadi, one of Carles Puigdemont’s closest supporters, is in some ways in agreement with the statements made by Sr Méndez and Sra Sáenz. In some quarters it has been suggested that if Sr Puigdemont becomes a “symbolic” president Sra Artadi could become the “actual” leader of the next Catalan government, but on Sunday she rejected that idea out of hand.

But her point of view is rather different from those of the Spanish government: as spokesperson for Sr Puigdemont’s JxCat party in the new regional parliament, she insists that he is the only candidate being considered to become the “real” president of the new government. In her view, if by current parliamentary laws a “video-investiture” by Skype or other means is not allowed, the solution lies in changing those laws in order to allow such a procedure.

Sra Artadi also clarified that she does not believe that the current impasse will lead to another regional election, indicating that JxCat and the other main separatist party represented in the new parliament, ERC, are close enough to agreement to make that option unnecessary.

Meanwhile, as Carnival parades took place all over Spain during the weekend Carles Puigdemont will doubtless be pleased to learn that he appears to have brought about a renewed sense of patriotism among the troupes and revellers celebrating the start of Lent. As well as there being a noticeable increase in the number of Spanish flags featured in many parades this year, there are also plenty of jibes aimed at the former president’s flight to Brussels and his increasingly unusual ideas on how he might be able to continue in office despite being 1,500 kilometres away from the region of Catalunya: the images show an example from Sunday’s parade in Águilas, which holds the most important Carnival celebrations in the Region of Murcia.